|
May
30, 2003
LNG
driving for large sizes
Unusual load was moving on the roads between Czech towns Decin and Melnik on April 1st this year. It was not any Fool Day joke. The 35 m long (115 ft) and 5 m diameter (197 inch) animal was Ferox manufactured cryogenic tank to be installed at Norwegian LNG terminal along with two other tanks of that size. Its nominal capacity 500 000 liters (132,000 gal) qualifies it to compete for the largest of the shop manufactured and long distance transferred perlite-vacuum tanks in the world. The weight 130 M-tons (143 s.t.) is relatively low for an 8 bar pressure tank (116 psig). This is thanks to Ferox special pressure strengthening method of the inner stainless steel vessel during manufacturing, by which the wall thickness can be reduced by 40%.
The 80 km transport (50 miles) was a project for itself. The tank was bridging two special, unique in Europe bogies with altogether sixty tires and computer controlled hydraulic equalization system, watched by operator, sitting at the rear bogie. Two eight-wheel trucks were completing the whole train on its front and rear ends. Ferox had to account for the Danish transport company an important part of the total costs, but thanks to effective manufacturing and sourcing, the price is still on well competitive level. The Logistics department took it for exercise on maximum transport capabilities. The team was following the transport and they measured clearances at all the bottlenecks. The train arrived to the Melnik Elbe-river port on the other day late in the night.
As result of the worldwide trend of getting LNG closer to final gas-users, there is a great interest on vacuum insulated shop manufactured tanks. It seems, that the 500 m3 (132 th. gal) size will become a working horse of this medium sized LNG technology. Combinations of these tanks can well substitute for smaller flat bottom tanks of sizes 2000 to 5000 m3 (500 to 1300 th. gal approx.) because of better mechanical load resistance to earthquake or soil settlement, which results in simpler foundation system, because of elimination of the liquid roll-over problem, which requires expensive control systems at flat bottom tanks, because of elimination of major part of on-site construction costs and shorter lead times and last but not least, a possibility of stage wise investment and operation. This new size experience is usable in air gases technology, too. Thanks to the Ferox team commitment on meeting the challenge we are well positioned on the initial point of the LNG boom.
>> May 21, 2003, MULTIGAS and FEROX
>> March 26, 2003, Ferox and Air
Products agreed to sign Multi-Year European Supply Contract
>> February 25, 2003, Thermax - Ferox
Alliance
>> December 2, 2002, Press Report:
Liquefied Natural Gas
>> October 16, 2002, Ferox awarded
Norwegian LNG orders
>> September 27, 2002, Thermax -
Ferox Alliance
